Pride of Brookfield

In those days, Brad Lutrus was the household name at Brookfield High School, the running back with the resume and the reputation.

"Scott is six years younger than I am. He was just a little kid with blond hair when I was in high school," Brad Lutrus, 25, said Thursday night.

Even so, Scott Lutrus adored his older brother, the way little boys with smooth faces often look up to siblings with 5 o'clock shadows.

If Brad played football, Scott was going to play football, too.

Although Scott didn't snap on a chinstrap until the eighth grade, he didn't waste any time making the backfield his own.

Lutrus shed his boyish image the same way he shed tacklers -- with breakneck speed and calculated abandon.

Six years later, Scott Lutrus has emerged as one of the top freshmen football players in the country. Earlier this month, he was named to the freshman All-America first team by The Sporting News.

A 6-foot-3, 220-pound redshirt freshman, Lutrus is a big reason why UConn will play Wake Forest next Saturday in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.

In his first college season, Lutrus has started every game and ranks third on the Huskies (9-3) with 98 tackles.

He also made four interceptions this year and has scored on two of them -- one against Maine on Sept. 8 and another against South Florida on Oct. 27.

The two touchdown returns tie Lutrus for UConn's single-season and career records. The Big East's single-season record of three is shared by Sean Taylor of Miami (2003) and Malcolm Postell of Pittsburgh (2004).

For his efforts, Lutrus was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 21 and 28. He became the first Big East player to earn back-to-back defensive honors since Miami's Nate Webster accomplished the feat in 1999.

But don't try telling that to Lutrus.

"Defensively, as a unit, we've done great this year. We've really played well together," Lutrus said. "I just happened to catch some breaks and it helped out the team.

"Interceptions happen when the defense is playing well as a whole and everybody is taking care of their assignments. It's not just me making a play."

All modesty aside, there is no mistaking the impact Lutrus had at UConn this season.

"I get so pumped up watching him play now," Brad Lutrus said. "I always knew Scott was talented. I just didn't know he was this talented.

"After a while, you just expected him to make a play. You weren't surprised anymore. You didn't take it for granted or anything," Lutrus added. "But you weren't surprised."

That wasn't always the case at the Lutrus house, you see. The pecking order changed forever one September night in 2005.

"I remember the first play of his senior year at Brookfield High School," Brad Lutrus said. "Even now, it's like I'm watching it unwind in my head.

"Brookfield was playing Notre Dame of Fairfield and Scott got the ball. It was crazy. He just hit the corner and took off. I mean, he was gone. Nobody was going to catch him."

Understand, Brad Lutrus was hardly a slacker in the backfield at Brookfield High. In fact, he was named all-state well before his kid brother.

But the moment Scott Lutrus took off for the end zone that night, he wasn't turning back. Ever.

"My mom looked over at me and said, 'So who do you think is quicker now?' I just laughed because I knew the answer," Brad Lutrus said.

He just wasn't telling anyone, least of all, anyone with a football scholarship to dangle in front of the former Brookfield High star.

Lutrus finished his senior year with 2,017 yards rushing, 32 touchdowns and 204 points -- all tops in the state.

Although UConn was the only Division I-A school to offer Lutrus a full scholarship -- Yale and Penn were the other two schools in the mix -- Edsall didn't care about anyone else's recruiting board.

Edsall saw the raw talent and the intrinsic leadership. And when he looked a little bit harder -- when Edsall looked down the road at Rentschler Field -- he saw a first-rate college football player in Lutrus.

On his best days, Edsall can look into players the same way gypsies look into crystal balls. He can see the future.

"I don't think it was a risk taking Scott Lutrus," Edsall said flatly. "My staff and I have confidence in our ability to evaluate kids and not necessarily see where they are today, but where they can be tomorrow and what they can grow into.

"The thing with Scott Lutrus is, you watch the kid play and you take the makeup of him and all the intangibles he has," Edsall went on. "It doesn't surprise me that he's done as well as he has."

Lutrus, the same kid who went to the Newtown High prom as a senior, has managed to earn the respect -- not the resentment -- of UConn's veterans on defense.

And he's done it as a redshirt freshman.

Lutrus is just as savvy reading quarterbacks and offenses, you see, as he is reading his teammates. Of course, it didn't hurt that Lutrus played at the highest level this season.

Last Tuesday, after practice was finished in Storrs, the echoes of enthusiasm lingered in the Shenkman Center, all the way up to its 120-foot high ceiling.

Only moments earlier, those same echoes lived inside the swollen chests of Lutrus and the other Huskies in helmets and shoulder pads.

Maybe this is the second bowl game in UConn history. But for Lutrus, the unassuming kid from Brookfield, next Saturday is a game he will remember for the rest of his life.

"This bowl game isn't just a reward for us. It's a reward for the university, the state, the fans, our friends and families, everyone who has supported us," Lutrus said, with flecks of gratitude in his eyes.

Just the other day, his brother, Brad, went to the store to buy supplies for the holidays. When it came time to pay, Brad Lutrus handed his debit card to the cashier.

"The guy looked at my debit card and said, 'Hey, do you know Scott Lutrus?' When I told him Scott was my brother, he thought it was great," Brad Lutrus said.

"It used to be that I was his brother. Now, you go around town and everybody refers to him as 'our Scott Lutrus.' It's kind of funny how everybody has kind of adopted him.

"You know, maybe I was his idol when he was little and I played football at the high school. But I'll tell you what, he's my idol now."